Tuesday, August 07, 2012

“ Interest groups supported by the Kochs spew out a steady
stream of position papers, congressional testimony , and public pronouncements
about public policies that are detrimental to the middle class.They back unrestricted free trade and
oppose even the slightest government action that might be interpreted as
protectionist, a position that helped to destroy millions of domestic
manufacturing jobs. “

Bartlett and Steele. The Betrayal of the Middle Class. 2012.

And, in public education ?

Good for
Business; Kids Not So Much

While most
education reform advocates cloak their goals in the rhetoric of "putting
children first," the conceit was less evident at a conference in Scottsdale,
Arizona, earlier this year.

Standing at
the lectern of Arizona State University's SkySong conference center in April,
investment banker Michael Moe exuded confidence as he kicked off his second
annual confab of education startup companies and venture capitalists. A press
packet cited reports that rapid changes in education could unlock "immense
potential for entrepreneurs." "This education issue," Moe
declared, "there's not a bigger problem or bigger opportunity in my estimation."

Moe has
worked for almost fifteen years at converting the K-12 education system into a
cash cow for Wall Street. A veteran of Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch, he
now leads an investment group that specializes in raising money for businesses
looking to tap into more than $1 trillion in taxpayer money spent annually on
primary education. His consortium of wealth management and consulting firms,
called Global Silicon Valley Partners, helped K12 Inc. go public and has
advised a number of other education companies in finding capital.

Moe's
conference marked a watershed moment in school privatization. His first
"Education Innovation Summit," held last year, attracted about 370
people and fifty-five presenting companies. This year, his conference hosted
more than 560 people and 100 companies, and featured luminaries like former DC
Mayor Adrian Fenty and former New York City schools chancellor Joel Klein, now
an education executive at News Corporation, a recent high-powered entrant into
the for-profit education field. Klein is just one of many former school
officials to cash out. Fenty now consults for Rosetta Stone, a language company
seeking to expand into the growing K-12 market.